Containers of standardised sizes are ever more being used for the transport of products. The products may be packaged appropriately and then the packages loaded into the container, or--depending upon the nature of the products--those products may be loaded directly into the container. In order to allow the direct loading of particulate products, such as powders, granules or the like, it is known to fit within a container a bag-like flexible liner for example of polyethylene which liner is provided with an inlet accessible when the liner has been fitted into a container, whereby a bulk product may be loaded into the liner for transport. A wide variety of particulate materials may be carried in bulk in this way, and in view of the isolation of the product from the ambient, even food products may conveniently be transported.
The conventional way of discharging a powder-like material carried in a liner within a container is to allow the material to run under gravity out of a discharge provided at one end of the liner, by tipping the container. The wall of the container in the region of the discharge may be provided with a hatch having a door which, when opened, gives access to the discharge of the liner. In an alternative arrangement, within the end of the container having conventional doors, there is provided a bulkhead assembly to retain the load and liner in position,, the assembly having an aperture giving access to the liner discharge. When the container is to be discharged, the container doors are opened and then access is gained to the discharge through the aperture in the bulkhead assembly. Examples of the above arrangements are described in GB-A-2 264 695 and U.S. Pat. No. 5 152 735.
There have been several proposals for bulkhead assemblies suitable for use in the above-described manner. Such a bulkhead assembly should be relatively cheap to manufacture since it usually is used only once, and frequently such structures are manufactured on site from lengths of timber appropriately cut to size. In an attempt to reduce the manufacturing time and also the cost of such a assembly, it is known to provide as few structural members as possible extending both vertically from the floor to the top of the container and horizontally from side to side, and then to use those members to support a rigid board--for example of plywood or blackboard--which extends across the width of the container. However, a certain amount of cutting and fabrication of the board is required with this arrangement, in order to allow access to the discharge of the liner.